The Resistance, the citizens not under Christine's control, join forces with an unexpected ally: Hektor Martin, the nefarious head of Aktaion. Despite Hektor revealing more about the Dome's origins and helping to strike back at it, Big Jim and Julia still worry he will betray them. Meanwhile, Hunter receives encrypted files that give disturbing insights into the final effect the Dome will have on the infected townspeople.
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as 'the dome' comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when-or if-it will go away.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens-town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing-even cuddle-to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.